# Musketballing



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

It's been called "cannonballing", but the gauge is a little light for that. Since a musket ball is closer to the right size, I think "musketballing" seems apropos for a wad of tobacco.

The Frank Method comes close, with its final, big, packed chunk crammed into the bowl. I've heard of musket/cannonballing ribbon, but it hasn't worked for me very well -- I only musketball flakes.

Musketballing leaves an air pocket beneath the tobacco ball and the draught hole, which seems to be an advantage of some sort, although that observation seems ripe for contention. As I see it, the ember progresses and successive tamps push it down by degrees. The wad does arrive at the bottom of the chamber toward the end, but in a drier state than if it had started out touching the bottom. The last of the tobacco burns clean and dry as a result, and dries and chars the heel so well that the pipe can be smoked again as soon as it cools.

Unlike a fold and stuff, which implies right angles, possibly with strands end-on-end, the musketball is round. (Folding and stuffing LTF is almost musketballing, because the flake strands are somewhat disorganized already.) Basically, the same thing is happening in both methods, i.e., the tobacco strands are separated to some degree and yet kept in a cohesive bundle. A musketball is fairly well broken up, more in the direction of a fully rubbed out flake, but not quite there; it's a fold and stuff run amok without quite demolishing the flake completely.

How much to use depends on the size of the flake and diameter of the chamber. Take enough to make a ball slightly larger than the chamber width; a little experimentation and practice makes estimating this pretty easy and there is no damage done if the ball is to big. It's a lot easier to start over with a musketball than a 3-stage pack and I take a mulligan a half the time. Force the ball into the chamber until it's even with the rim, pushing it down from the side ala Frank. If the draw is too tight (it's amazing how tight the musketball can be and still have a very easy draw), most times it's enough to pull some tobacco out of the center. The fit of the musketball must be fairly snug.

Another advantage to the musketball lies in its ability to hold together loose cuts, depending on whether you think mixing tobaccos is a good thing or a bad thing. Some purists want straight up, no nonsense IF. I'll take half an IF flake, a quarter of a VCF, then use those strands to wad up some 5100. The strands of a flake are like a pyromaniac's dream, a beautiful latticework that can greatly improve the burning qualities of loose cuts mixed into the bundle. For those few adventurous souls out there, an Erinmore flake, one strand of Ennerdale and some PA is a nice load.

With a little trial and error, anybody can quickly get pretty good at musketballing I would think.


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## Xodar (Mar 4, 2011)

Nice post Jim. I use this technique with Twist Flake particularly as well, since as you mentioned it doesn't really lend itself to the conventional fold and stuff.

I find that when I over musket-ball a pipe full just ramming the poker part of a 3 way through the ball in 4 or 5 places lets me get it going and draw just fine.

An Erinmore/Ennerdale/PA cocktail? You are a brave soul...


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## jwreed81 (Jun 9, 2011)

good stuff! will have to try this method out. kinda inherently did it with a sample of Dark Star yesterday


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

A must try thanks!


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

Thanks for the right up freestroke... good information!


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Xodar said:


> An Erinmore/Ennerdale/PA cocktail? You are a brave soul...


A quarter flake of Ennerdale is sorta like being 1/4 pregnant, suppose. Actually, I arrived at this by accident; after smoking straight up Ennerdale, I mindlessly turned to an Erinmore/PA cocktail constructed on the same piece of paper I used for musketballing the Ennerdale. Voila! (This probably grosses people out in much the same way I get squeemish when people order anchovies on their pizza.)


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

This is the method I generally use with flakes anymore, and I think the air pocket at the bottom of the pipe is definitely the key. I've shoved enough flake into a pipe that I expected problems with overpacking, but if that gap is there, everything seems to be fine.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

MarkC said:


> This is the method I generally use with flakes anymore, and I think the air pocket at the bottom of the pipe is definitely the key. I've shoved enough flake into a pipe that I expected problems with overpacking, but if that gap is there, everything seems to be fine.


I don't feel like I'm breaking any new ground here, but descriptions of folding and stuffing always seem too regimented somehow. I don't see many people talking about the way we both seem to have come to deal with flakes. Pipe smokers are more heavily packed with industrious, organized people than the population at large, so there is less help for the lazy smoker. They always have all these methods and procedures and rules and stuff, ya know? :lol:


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

jwreed81 said:


> good stuff! will have to try this method out. kinda inherently did it with a sample of Dark Star yesterday


Thanks! I think I'm just too slovenly and unskilled to fold and stuff properly. :lol: Seriously, though, it's easy enough and a very effective way to smoke flakes.


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## 92hatchattack (May 30, 2009)

Nice! You need to start a youtube series. I've learned so much from you posts in just a few short weeks.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

TonyBrooklyn said:


> A must try thanks!


More than welcome! One thing I forgot to mention -- a slightly moisture flake musketballs better than a fully dried one. If I'm rubbing out a flake, I want it pretty dry, but for some reason a fresh IF flake musketballs just fine. I'm not sure you even CAN make a good musketball from a dry flake. Gotta be able to make a wad that doesn't fall apart.


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## jwreed81 (Jun 9, 2011)

92hatchattack said:


> Nice! You need to start a youtube series. I've learned so much from you posts in just a few short weeks.


+1 :tu


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

92hatchattack said:


> Nice! You need to start a youtube series. I've learned so much from you posts in just a few short weeks.


Maybe a youradio or something...I don't want to scare people.

:lol: Thanks! I'm happy if I've helped you out some, for sure. :tu


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## RJpuffs (Jan 27, 2008)

MarkC said:


> This is the method I generally use with flakes anymore, and I think the air pocket at the bottom of the pipe is definitely the key. I've shoved enough flake into a pipe that I expected problems with overpacking, but if that gap is there, everything seems to be fine.





freestoke said:


> I don't feel like I'm breaking any new ground here, but descriptions of folding and stuffing always seem too regimented somehow. I don't see many people talking about the way we both seem to have come to deal with flakes. Pipe smokers are more heavily packed with industrious, organized people than the population at large, so there is less help for the lazy smoker. They always have all these methods and procedures and rules and stuff, ya know? :lol:


I have a theory about that and that.

Air space at the bottom - I don't know about cooling effects due to this. But the logical argument about moisture not being able to stick to baccy at the heel makes sense. As flakes tend to expand when heated, the space allows them room to go down (instead of shooting up the top like a volcano).

As for the balling up, I think its the compression - same as the Frank Fill - that is the key. Normally if you jam tobacco into the bowl, there is nowhere for air to pass and its "clogged". With this method, the baccy is tight, and the only passage for air to be drawn in along the sides of the chamber (especially in a well caked briar). This will give an even burn, restrict wind effect hence cooler smoke, and moisture is probably going to get wicked up and evaporate hence drier smoke.


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## Stonedog (Mar 9, 2011)

OK, so I'd like to try to cannonball/musketball a flake but youtube and google aren't cooperating. Is this as simple as pinching/mashing/wadding/whatever a flake into a ball that just barely fits into the bowl?


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## Zfog (Oct 16, 2010)

@ stonedog, whenever I cannonball I rubb out the flake partially. I rub my hands in a circular motion and a little ball forms. That's how I do it anyway.

I will have to try Musketball method out.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Yeah, just take a flake, put it in your hands like you're going to rub it out, and then change your mind...that pretty much gets you there.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Stonedog said:


> OK, so I'd like to try to cannonball/musketball a flake but youtube and google aren't cooperating. Is this as simple as pinching/mashing/wadding/whatever a flake into a ball that just barely fits into the bowl?


Like I said, I made up the term "musketballing", because when I've heard them talk about cannonballing it's been with ribbon. There's almost certainly somebody doing it on youtube with flakes and I would have thought "cannonball" would have worked for a search.

It is exactly as simple as that, though, just making a wad of tobacco and cramming it in there. One of its charms is the fact that it requires no skill whatsoever. :lol:


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## WyoBob (Mar 6, 2007)

I musketballed for the first time this afternoon with some LNF and a Diplomat cob. I'd dried the tobacco a bit because I was going to load conventionally so it didn't want to ball up very well. Thank goodness the cob is a sitter as I have to load with one hand for the next couple of months.

The LNF burned quite well. On par and possibly better than the Frank method. I was called away for a couple of hours and the tobacco tasted better than I expected when I got back to the bowl. Eventually, tamping will move the "plug" to the bottom of the bowl and I can see how this method might keep the bottom of briars/meers a little bit drier.

I'll keep using this method for the next week or so and see what happens.


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## CBR (Mar 31, 2010)

Good post, freestoke. I like the new terminology!


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## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

oh I get the term "musketballing" like your ramming a bullet down a musket. you take a wad of flake rolled into a ball, and shove it in your pipe *duh*
I tried that today with a flake of macbaren Virginia flake, I do say the heel of my bowl was drier, and there was a clean draw of air.
But I folded the flake lengthwise, fold over rubbed out, and then wadded into a ball.
have to keep experimenting, always something to learn in pipes and tobacco heheh
troy


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## Stonedog (Mar 9, 2011)

freestoke said:


> Like I said, I made up the term "musketballing", because when I've heard them talk about cannonballing it's been with ribbon. There's almost certainly somebody doing it on youtube with flakes and I would have thought "cannonball" would have worked for a search.
> 
> It is exactly as simple as that, though, just making a wad of tobacco and cramming it in there. One of its charms is the fact that it requires no skill whatsoever. :lol:


I tried this last night with a flake of LNF. Didn't really rub it out, just kinda wadded it up like a chewing gum wrapper and stuffed it in there just below the rim. The draw was better and the overall experience was better than the normal fold-n-stuff I've used. Will have to keep experimenting with it.

Thanks for posting this!


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## Blue_2 (Jan 25, 2011)

freestoke said:


> Like I said, I made up the term "musketballing", because when I've heard them talk about cannonballing it's been with ribbon. There's almost certainly somebody doing it on youtube with flakes and I would have thought "cannonball" would have worked for a search.
> 
> It is exactly as simple as that, though, just making a wad of tobacco and cramming it in there. One of its charms is the fact that it requires no skill whatsoever. :lol:


Some people also call it the "Air Pocket Method" but I kind of like 'Musketball' myself. Has that certain ring to it.


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## commonsenseman (Apr 18, 2008)

I thought this thread was gonna be about guns.......:dunno:

Great write-up on a method that I've actually never tried myself. I've always gone through all the trouble to fold-n-stuff. Next time I'll just rough it up a little & shove it in.


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## WyoBob (Mar 6, 2007)

Hey, Jeff. I just noticed it says that you 've just smoked 1792 and my ring gauge is 1792. Spooky, huh? 

As i remember, 1792 is one of the great tobaccos that you sent me just over a year ago when I took up the pipe again.

Thanks for greasing the slope for me. It's been a very enjoyable trip!:hail:


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## commonsenseman (Apr 18, 2008)

WyoBob said:


> Hey, Jeff. I just noticed it says that you 've just smoked 1792 and my ring gauge is 1792. Spooky, huh?
> 
> As i remember, 1792 is one of the great tobaccos that you sent me just over a year ago when I took up the pipe again.
> 
> Thanks for greasing the slope for me. It's been a very enjoyable trip!:hail:


To be totally honest, it's my defaut "just smoked". But, more often then not, it's true.

Glad I was able to help :wink:


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Blue_2 said:


> Some people also call it the "Air Pocket Method" but I kind of like 'Musketball' myself. Has that certain ring to it.


Thanks Dan! Yeah, "Air Pocket Method" is pretty lifeless, but almost certainly the key to the youtube offerings.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Stonedog said:


> I tried this last night with a flake of LNF. Didn't really rub it out, just kinda wadded it up like a chewing gum wrapper and stuffed it in there just below the rim. The draw was better and the overall experience was better than the normal fold-n-stuff I've used. Will have to keep experimenting with it.
> 
> Thanks for posting this!


Very welcome, Jon. Yeah! "Wadded it up like a chewing gum wrapper" is exactly right! I've been struggling for a way to describe it and that's exactly it. Definitely the perfect analogy. For combining with a loose cut, it's like wadding up the gum in the wrapper too! :tu


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

commonsenseman said:


> I thought this thread was gonna be about guns.......:dunno:
> 
> Great write-up on a method that I've actually never tried myself. I've always gone through all the trouble to fold-n-stuff. Next time I'll just rough it up a little & shove it in.


Thanks Jeff!

To be militarily exact, "cannonballing" is about guns. :lol:


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Another benefit of this method for me has been my concern for not losing my air pocket _finally_ teaching me to have a light hand with the tamper. I'd always read things like "just let the weight of the tamper compress the ash" and my brain would say "nah; it's one of them hyperbole thingies-they don't really mean that!"


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## B.L. Sims (Jan 14, 2010)

I think ill try it!


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## Diodon nepheligina (Nov 5, 2009)

commonsenseman said:


> just rough it up a little & shove it in.


:shocked:


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## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

I tried the musketball method of loading a pipe, took a flake of FVF that's been aging for who knows how long. wadded it up, like I would a chewing gum wrapper and loaded my bend dublin.
Damm nice even burn, and just a few tamps to get the flake down the botten of the bowl with nothing but ashes and a bit of dottle heheh
the heel of the bowl was gurgling soo I had a run a pipe cleaner through a couple of times. my fault I rehydrated a flake over night and should have left it to sit for a bit hehe
troy


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## B.L. Sims (Jan 14, 2010)

Good results from me here as well. Ive musketballed about 3 different tobaccos and had some of the best burns ever- something I could never get with the "frank" method.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

B.L. Sims said:


> Good results from me here as well. Ive musketballed about 3 different tobaccos and had some of the best burns ever- something I could never get with the "frank" method.


Glad it worked for you! :tu I just musketballed some Royal Yacht -- think I'm finally getting the hang of musketballing ribbon! Definitely can't be too dry or it doesn't work worth a damn, though.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

laloin said:


> my fault I rehydrated a flake over night and should have left it to sit for a bit hehe
> troy


Can't be too dry or it falls apart and doesn't pack tight enough. (Weird thing to say in general, where too tight a pack is usually a mistake.)


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

I'll have to try it with ribbon some time; it's been a strictly flake thing with me.


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## mirain (Jun 29, 2009)

Fantastic post. I tried this method with some Blackeney's Best Latikia Flake and it worked really well.


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## Stonedog (Mar 9, 2011)

Was in a hurry this morning but decided I wanted to have a little LNF (after a week or so of 4Noggins blends) so I wadded up a flake and crammed it just below the rim of my finicky Viking. Voila! Excellent flavor, zero gurgle and by the end I had tamped the ball down to the bottom of the bowl. Best burn I've had in this pipe.


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## B.L. Sims (Jan 14, 2010)

freestoke said:


> Glad it worked for you! :tu I just musketballed some Royal Yacht -- think I'm finally getting the hang of musketballing ribbon! Definitely can't be too dry or it doesn't work worth a damn, though.


Haha, got that right. To quote Maj Thorn(e) from "Sgt. Bilko"
"Its like trying to nail jello to the wall"


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

B.L. Sims said:


> Haha, got that right. To quote Maj Thorn(e) from "Sgt. Bilko"
> "Its like trying to nail jello to the wall"


:lol: You can't mball crimp cuts or cube cuts, either. PA and CH are unMBable, for all intents and purposes. (But then, who cares, they burn great almost no matter what you do.)


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## Stan41 (Sep 30, 2009)

I have been musketballing for years, just didn't know it had a name.
Stan


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## NoShhhSherlock (Mar 30, 2011)

Great Post Jim, very informative!


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

I just came up with a variation which I call the musketball-curse-rip-and-cram, useful when realizing that the wadded up flake of Hamborger Veermaster is NOT going to fit in that Stanwell bent dublin...


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## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

MarkC said:


> I just came up with a variation which I call the musketball-curse-rip-and-cram, useful when realizing that the wadded up flake of Hamborger Veermaster is NOT going to fit in that Stanwell bent dublin...


potty mouth :loco:


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## Commander Quan (May 6, 2003)

1 year later bump

Jim, I've been listening to your musket balling apologetics for the last year, and always wrote it off as a variation of the fold and stuff method, which I never preferred, but for some reason I tried it with half a flake of Capstan yesterday, and it worked brilliantly. Just wanted to let you know.


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## Contrabass Bry (May 3, 2010)

Doesn't hurt that the Capstan is brilliant on it's own... I think it would still burn with finesse if it were compacted by the mass of Jupiter. Tracking some more down as we speak.

I, too have given this a few more attempts is recent times. This morning, in fact. Half bowl of LGF musketballed in a small, saddle bit Barling. Had almost given up on this stuff until this bowl. Cool, slow burn gave off such a nice "light corn sryup" mouthfeel and flavor. 

Thanks again for promoting this technique!


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## TheRooster (Jul 18, 2012)

Bumping because it'll be handy for any newbies just getting a pipe. Just used this method on my first flake... Went ok... Next time, maybe a little less tobacco.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

At this point, I can add a note from experience with musketballing. After getting the hang of it, I was able to do similar things with ribbon after all. In a way, with ribbon the method succeeds in an unexpected way -- at least the art of casuistry tells me this: While manipulating the ball, one can feel the uniformity of it and make of it a consistent wad (with a bit of diligence), whereas leaving it to the vagaries of packing into the chamber piecemeal, areas of denser and lesser compression arise, such being the nature of ribbon, threatening an uneven smoke. That said, an uneven smoke isn't all bad either.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Liked this post and information in it bumping it.


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## Eddie A. (Apr 7, 2011)

freestoke said:


> It is exactly as simple as that, though, just making a wad of tobacco and cramming it in there. One of its charms is the fact that it requires no skill whatsoever. :lol:


This statement leads me to believe that I'm qualified to musketball  Can't wait to get me some flake so I can give it a go!

bump


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